Of Lies, Parties and Death
by Pyroerotic
Summary: Well, this started as an english assignment. Jemma Fic. Parties, Drama and Death! My first ever Fan Fic. OneShot! Please R&R!


**A/N: So this is my first fanfic. Actually it was an English assignment that I decided to turn into a fanfic rather than some boring no point story. Please R&R. No flames please, just constructive criticism. I hope to be posting many more. And I hope you like it!**

Of Lies, Parties and Death

It had been three months since Peter's party and the students at Degrassi were still not over Manny's little drunken stunt. Although Manny's attempts to get back at Peter had been foiled she was still unaware that the reason for their failure was that her best friend Emma was actually dating him behind her back. And although most people had a feeling Emma was with Peter no one knew what she really did at nights. Her secret rendezvous at the ravine which had begun the previous spring and had gained Emma the reputation of slut had never ended. Yet everyone believed that she had stopped once the news came out about Amy and Alex.

Emma's life was anything but perfect. Her years as the outspoken vegetarian environmental activist were long gone. The innocent and scrupulous girl she had been throughout middle school had died along with her relationship with Sean. Emma no longer berated students for being morally wrong and she didn't hold protests in the school in order to prevent the serving of genetically modified foods. She had stopped caring about all of that and after the shooting Emma had completely broken down leading her straight to Jay. As everyone knew he was the bad boy of the school so naturally Emma figured he'd be able to help her escape, but what she got was the farthest from anything she could have expected. The nights with Jay offered Emma a part of life she'd never experienced. For once in her life she didn't have to think, she could just be, and no one there would judge her because that's why everyone went to the ravine; to party and to get away.

One morning in September Emma woke up to Manny's yells. Ever since Manny's fight with her dad she'd been living with Emma and Emma had grown used to this sort of wake up call. "Emma! Come one we're going to be late!" Manny had yelled for the fifth time before rushing into the bathroom.

Looking at her alarm clock Emma realized that it was only 6:30am and school didn't start for another two hours. She'd stayed late at the ravine the night before and had only been asleep for a little over two hours. Refusing to get up that early Emma simply rolled over after yelling, "We won't be late. We don't need two hours to walk to school!"

After another half hour of Manny's whining Emma gave in and got up. The desire to just hop back into bed and forget school even existed consumed Emma as she trudged up her stairs into the kitchen. Manny and Emma's parents had grown used to her not eating breakfast but were always worried her anorexia would return and hounded her daily to make sure she ate at least two meals, even if they were small. Growing tired of their admittedly reasonable distrust Emma had been able to successfully dissemble her disorder by eating at lunch and then during her fifth period, which Manny, or Peter for that matter, was not in, she would go to the bathroom and throw up. Dinner was much easier to skip because Emma could just tell her parents she was going on dates with Peter when in reality she was on her way to her clandestine hide out. Her escape from all the pains she felt in life, her freedom to just to whatever she wanted for those few precious hours every night. That time was her time. And it was the time she spent with the boy she loved, even though she knew to him she was just another ravine girl she could not help wishing that one day he would see her love for him and that someday he would reciprocate it.

Walking to school that day it was all Emma could do not to run towards that obnoxiously orange Civic and tell Jay to just take her away, once and for all. But of course, Manny didn't know where Emma was every night; she believed that Emma was at Peter's house. So during school Emma was forced to act like she and Peter were the happy couple everyone else believed them to be. He was waiting for her at her locker the next morning just like always but that morning he seemed upset and Emma had a small idea why. Manny had mentioned that the previous night she had called Peter to see if Emma was coming home yet and Peter had told Manny that Emma hadn't been there that night. Emma's cover was blown.

"Who were you with?" Peter practically screamed as Emma neared her locker.

"Excuse me? I have no idea what you are talking about," she lied.

"You know exactly what I mean! Whoever you've been with every night while Manny believed you were with me," Peter seemed on the verge of violence or tears, maybe both. "Who is it?" With that he slammed his fist into the locker and for the first time looked her in the eyes, pleading with her. "Please, Em, just tell me so I can understand what they have to give you that I don't."

When Emma saw the tears in Peter's eyes she immediately looked away. A part of her felt sorry and hated herself for causing him that kind of pain. But the other part of her just did not care. After all that she'd been through in recent months Emma believed she deserved to have her freedom, no matter who it hurt or what it cost. "Peter, just don't, ok? I really don't think I have anything to explain to you. It's over," and she walked away without looking back.

Manny stood there in shock with the heartbroken Peter. Although she hated Peter for what he'd done to her she could not believe her best friend had acted so perfidiously. "Peter, I had no idea. I swear!"

"Just don't Manny," he said sadly as he turned around and walked away.

Emma didn't show up for any of her classes that day which got Manny a little worried. Emma didn't ditch school, she wasn't like that. But that was the old Emma Manny was thinking of. In reality Emma had run off towards shop class to find Jay. She had known that if she asked he would take her away and so she asked and off they went. She didn't care where as long as it wasn't where she could be found. This time Emma really wanted to get away for good.

"Emma, where are we going?" Jay asked as he sped down the road. From what he could tell Emma was very upset but when he'd asked all she'd said was that she had broken up with Peter. Inwardly Jay was overjoyed by that news because it meant Emma might finally really be his. When Emma didn't respond to his question he decided he would stop a few cities away at a friend's house. Jay had been to some of his parties so he knew they were great and Emma needed something to cheer her up.

The first thing Emma did once they reached the party was locate the alcohol. She didn't want to feel the pain inside of her so she decided to drown it. As the night wore on her drunkenness could no longer belie her feelings and she began to get more and more depressed. So she drank more.

"Emma, you need to slow down!" Jay yelled at her over the music. He kept trying to take away her drink but that only made her more upset. Jay could hardly be considered to have probity but he was still concerned for her. With all the drugs and alcohol in his life he knew what would happen if she took it too far. "Em, come on! You really need to stop, you could get hurt!" Suddenly Emma pushed Jay into the wall and he felt her grab his car keys and then she ran. Jay and several others chased after her but they couldn't get to the car fast enough. She drove off and turned the corner before they were out the door.

After about an hour of searching Jay had given up and gone back to his friend's house. Emma was in no condition to drive but since she wasn't answering her cell there was no way he could find her. And then his phone rang.

"Mr. Jay Hogart?" said the voice on the other end.

"Yeah, that's me," Jay answered

"We have a young lady here by the name of Emma Nelson. She gave us your name."

'Shit,' Jay thought. "Are you a cop, was she arrested?"

"I'm afraid that she wasn't that lucky. Sir, there's been an accident, she's in surgery now. You need to come down to the hospital."

By the time the last words had come out Jay was already in his friend's car. Once he arrived the doctors asked him to fill out paperwork for Emma and asked him for the number of her parents but he said he would call them. Jay knew there was no way he could call her parents. They already hated him and would blame him completely. Eventually he came up with a stratagem to get them to the hospital but to believe he wasn't really connected. He called Manny and told her that Emma had gotten drunk and when the paramedics came she asked for him. He told Manny to tell Emma's parents and to get to the hospital as quickly as possible. It wasn't until Jay got off the phone with Manny about a half hour later that the reality of the situation finally hit him. Emma was in surgery. She had gotten drunk and driven off in his car because of him. If only he hadn't tried to make her stop. He felt that it everything was his fault. And he was sure that now, after all of this, if Emma made it through she would surely hate him and he would loose the girl he loved.

Emma was out of surgery eight hours later. The truck that hit her ran into the driver's side door. She had a punctured lung, several broken ribs, a broken arm and leg, and head trauma. By the time she got to the hospital she had lost a severe amount of blood and was in a coma. Her parents arrived to find Jay sitting by her bed silently crying. Manny had seen through his spurious explanation but had told Emma's parents exactly what Jay had wanted. Manny was not very surprised once she figured out that the boy Emma snuck off to every night was Jay, she knew that Emma had loved him. But now Emma was lying in ICU on the verge of death all because of him.

One week later Emma had no brain function whatsoever. The doctors explained to her parents that they could keep her in the hospital because after all, people had woken up after many years from this type of coma, or they could take her off the machines. They decided that for the moment they would keep their daughter alive in the hope that she would wake up.

Manny had confronted Jay when she first got to the hospital with Emma's parents and after talking with him for several hours Manny realized that he truly loved Emma. Seeing her in the hospital was as hard for him as it was for the rest of them. For the first time in her life, Manny actually understood Jay Hogart. Over the next few days Emma's parents had questioned Manny and Jay repeatedly to make sure that neither of them had been aware of what Emma had been doing. Both of them, following their collusion, had explained to her parents that Manny had been at home that evening and Emma had snuck out, called one of Jay's friends looking for a party and had gone there. She had gotten drunk and taken someone's car keys and gotten in the accident and when the paramedics showed up she told them Jay's name and then passed out.

Emma's parents had never liked Jay. Her father was a teacher at Degrassi and so he knew all about Jay's reputation. He also knew about the times the year before when Emma had snuck off to the ravine to be with him, but both her parents, like Manny, had believed that their daughter was no longer seeing him. Their first thoughts upon arriving at the hospital had been that somehow Jay was involved. He was the bad boy of the school. The partier and the thief, he for sure was at every party that ever happened. Little did they know that he loved Emma had although he was at the party, he had been trying to stop her. When their talks with Manny and Jay yielded nothing they decided that perhaps the nefarious Jay Hogart had actually changed.

After two months there was no change in Emma. Jay visited her everyday staying sometimes for up to five hours just sitting by her bed. Every once in a while Jay would break down and cry but mostly he kept all his pain inside. All the guilt that he felt ate away at him. He spent his days in a zombie-like state hardly sleeping, never eating; his only joy was seeing Emma even though just looking at her made his pain triple. As the days turned into weeks and finally months he decided that there was no hope of Emma ever getting better and so Jay decided that he would die just as Emma had. The last day he saw Emma he had cried the entire time. When he left her he told her goodbye and kissed her for the last time. That night he drank two bottles of Jack Daniels and ended up driving his car right off a bridge.

The next day the machines in Emma's room began going off, beeping loudly and whining as machines do when they are overworked. As nurses rushed into her room believing she was dying Emma's eyes opened and she spoke one word before dying.

"Jay."


End file.
